Teams of UN arms inspectors resumed their hunt for banned weapons in Iraq yesterday after winning promises of secret data supplied by Western intelligence agencies to assist them in their task.
Washington and London meanwhile signaled the prospect of a ground and air war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein early next year was now increasingly likely.
US President George W. Bush cancelled a trip to Africa at a few weeks' notice while the US military forged ahead with a buildup that could have more than 100,000 troops in the Gulf region in January or February.
Prime Minister Tony Blair told British armed forces in a Christmas message to prepare for war.
In a brief White House appearance on Friday, Bush said Iraq's arms declaration was "not encouraging" for finding a peaceful solution to the standoff.
"Yesterday was a disappointing day for those who long for peace," Bush said one day after Washington declared Iraq in "material breach" of a UN disarmament resolution for failing to disclose suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.
Hans Blix, who heads the team of UN inspectors that returned to Iraq in November after a four-year hiatus, told the Security Council on Thursday that Iraq's declaration was flawed.
Iraq submitted a 12,000-page dossier on Dec. 7 under a tough new resolution aimed at disarming Baghdad of any weapons of mass destruction, but Blix said there was little new information.
A senior US official said on Friday Washington would be offering more intelligence information to UN weapons inspectors. Earlier, Blix had urged Washington and London to share intelligence.
"We will be sharing additional intelligence with UNMOVIC to help them in their quest," the official said.
But there was no indication early yesterday that the data had yet been provided.
Officials said the information would involve fewer than six sites where US intelligence believed Iraq has "suspicious chemical weapons or elements of production."
The US also wants inspectors to take Iraqi scientists out of the country to interview them about Iraqi weapons programs. "If you get the right defector, that's all you need," a senior US official said.
Arms inspectors fanned out to four suspect sites yesterday, according to Iraqi officials. Nuclear experts revisited al-Nassr al-Atheem Company, a heavy engineering plant located in the Daura refinery just south of Baghdad, they said.
Other inspectors searched al-Raya Company, owned by Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission, in the Taji industrial area north of the capital, and two other sites.
Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in Vienna on Friday Iraq had admitted to attempting to import aluminium tubing which Washington says Baghdad wanted for enriching uranium for atomic weapons.
In New York, UN Security Council members agreed to appoint Germany as chairman of the council's sanctions panel on Iraq after the White House dropped its opposition, diplomats said.
The Security Council asked the arms inspectors on Friday to provide a detailed assessment of Iraq's arms declaration on Jan. 9, in another effort to evaluate Baghdad's claim that it no longer has weapons of mass destruction, diplomats said.
After the decision by the US to declare Iraq in "material breach," a phrase Washington could use to justify war against Iraq, there had been speculation that a Security Council appearance by Blix on Jan. 27 could be a critical date for Bush to make a decision about launching a military attack.
Iraq rejected the US "material breach" charge as extreme.
"This is an exaggerated response," General Hussam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi official cooperating with UN inspectors, said.
"Even before they were able to read and analyze the declaration they said it had many gaps."
In Qatar yesterday, six Gulf Arab member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were starting a summit meeting amid fears that a US-led attack on Iraq could create rifts within their pro-Western alliance.
Iraq shares borders with at least two members of the GCC and any attack on Baghdad could destabilize the oil-rich region.
Speaking in Doha on Friday, Washington's top military commander, General Richard Myers, said the US would go on deploying more forces to the Gulf to keep Iraq under pressure, but it had yet to set a date for any assault.
According to a German government source, the US has asked Germany to provide 2,000 troops to guard US bases in the country at the end of January to allow elements of the US military stationed there to be moved to the Gulf.
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